24-2 THE ROMANS. 



to Eston Nab or Barnaby Moor (camp). Roads which appear 

 to be of the Roman period lead from Malton toward the Wolds, 

 as by Wharram-le-Street towards the point between Fimber and 

 Wetwang, agreeing with the supposed position of Delgovitia, on 

 the road to Bridlington. And on th& Wolds we see or seem to 

 see ancient tracks leading northward from Beverley and Driffield, 

 and pointing by Ganton, Sherbum, and Yeddingham, from the 

 camps and entrenchments of the Wolds, to the dikes and camps 

 of the oolitic hills and northern moorlands. 



Besides all these are fragments of other roads on the Wolds, 

 and in the West Riding, which it would be tedious to enumerate. 

 They are often designated Street, or Gate, sometimes marked 

 by the words ( wath/ ' brough/ and ' thorn/ the latter seldom far 

 from old camps, and mounds of importance. Were all these 

 roads used by the Romans ? all constructed by them ? 



The answer must not be given without explanation. Almost 

 every one of these old roads leads between centres of population, 

 marked by Roman stations, so that it is very probable they were 

 all useful to the soldiers. If they were all constructed by them, we 

 must be prepared to admit deviations from straight lines, where 

 nature offered no impediments to that favourite mode of laying 

 the 'strata viarum/ Nor have they all, or indeed any great 

 proportion of them, the solid causeway which has been some- 

 times noticed, or the elevation above the neighbouring surface, 

 which has procured for some parts of these works the title of 

 ' Roman Ridge/ as west of Ripon, and on Bramham Moor. 

 None of these roads are, properly speaking, circuitous ; they are 

 for the most part composed of lengths which meet one another at 

 very obtuse angles, and are straight between one high point and 

 another. 



' STREET/ the general name for these roads, recalls their 

 Roman origin. Their proper names in Yorkshire include 

 neither Fosse nor Ermin, though some one of the roads north of 

 Brough Ferry, to which they come in a united stem, may be 

 regarded as the continuation of them. In like manner the 



